The topic of Second Life -- an online digital world being built by its residents -- came up at the IT Division Board dinner and meeting at the Leadership Summit. Several people were interesting in learning more about Second Life and there maybe others (who are reading this blog) who are also interested.
In this post, I will provide some quick, basic information. I promise to follow-up with more later.
First, are there libraries and librarians active in Second Life? Yes! Librarians jumped into Second Life (SL) a year ago in earnest and have been building libraries and offering services. There are also actual libraries and library science programs that have joined SL. The main island (land mass) for llibrarians is Info Island. To read about Info Island and what librarians are doing in SL, read the Info Island blog.
It is important to note that librarians from around the world are working in Second Life -- from large and small libraries, public and private libraries, and academic and public institutions. Major library organizations -- like IMLS and the Library of Congress -- are aware of SL, and I have actually interacted with libraries of LOC in SL.
You can enter and be active in Second Life for free. If you want to build or buy/sell "stuff", you will need a paid subscription. (I have been active in SL for several months and have a free account.)
You will need to download a piece of software to your PC in order to access SL. SL can tell you the PC requirements for running the software. I tell people that you want a newer PC and will a fair amount of memory. As a standard practice on my PCs, I try not to run multiple applications when I'm in SL and often will reboot my PC after being in SL in order to ensure that temporary files, etc., are released. (You may not need to do that, but that's what I do.)
It takes about 30 minutes or so to get acclimated to Second Life. You must learn how to move around and do things on Orientation Island before you are allowed on the mainland.
A good place to go after that is the Welcome Area on Info Island. You can teleport directly to the Welcome Area. (Look at the Map in SL and enter the location coordinates 128, 128, 0 .) There is information at the Welcome Area (on the calendar, etc.) that will help you understand what is available on the Island and in other places. (Left click on things....many will then tell you something via a notecard.)
I am doing tours of Info Island and anyone -- who is in Second Life -- can attend. The next tour will be Feb. 1 from 11:00 a.m. - 12 noon Eastern Time. We will meet at the Welcome Area to begin the tour. (Second Life Time is really U.S. West Coast Time, so the tour runs from 8 - 9 a.m. SL Time.) The next tour after that will be Feb. 15 from 11 - 12 noon Eastern Time (8 - 9 a.m. SL) and will begin at the Welcome Area on Info Island. (BTW my name in SL is Jillianna Suisei.)
If you have questions about Second Life, please feel free to post a comment here. I promise to answer them.
Finally, I was interviewed on TV about Second Life. You can read a blog posting about it here which also contains a link to the video (view in Internet Explorer). During the interivew, we did a tour of SL, so you can see part of Info Island and other places if you watch the two minute video.
I look forward to seeing some of you on the tour!
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